I got to meet an E-maginary friend today!

As a Sonlight Curriculum user, I frequent the forums that the company hosts as a benefit to using their program. And when I say frequent, I mean I practically live there, but don't tell my dh, okay? One of the ladies who is also a Sonlighter was traveling through my area in the Sunshine State and we scheduled a meetup at a local outlet mall. What fun! Here are a few pictures!

Me and Beth from the camera phone:


The mall was very crowded and I didn't want to ask some stranger to take a picture with my baby Nikon D40x. Call me untrusting, but hey, it was a MALL, you know. So the camera phone had to work.

Here's Beth shopping for shoes:



That time I was too lazy to pull out the Nikon, so the camera phone works, shoot me. Anyways, note the Cheesecake Factory bag :) We were going to eat dinner there but the wait was too long. Beth does not live in the states any longer so must do her shopping here when they are state side and time was of the essence. Since you go to The Cheesecake Factory for CHEESECAKE, (duh, right?) she decided to get a couple of slices to go. She may, or may not, share with her dh. I say, ransom it. :D We ended up eating at Taco Bell, much cheaper and faster.

So while we were checking out the Liz Claiborne Outlet, my eye wandered across a display of clearance items and a little red change purse caught my attention. Well, since we had splurged a whole lot less than I had planned on dinner, I thought I'd spend a few $$ on me and this adorable, sassy(adjective courtesy of my Boonie friend, Susan) little change purse. But , Beth, being the extremely nice person she is decided to treat me. How very sweet of her and I love it. Check it out, I took the photo (with my precious Nikon) when I got home using the centerpiece I made up for Christmas.



Isn't it loverly! I love e-maginary friends!!!

Mince Pie, a mixed blessing.

So last week the grocery store had Mrs. Smith's pies on sale. I'm not a baker of pies (cookies and cakes, certainly, but pies not so much) so I decided to grab a few. I picked out an apple, a dutch apple and, what I thought was a cherry pie. Yeah, it really pays to actually look at the label in your hand. Sigh...

So, it turns out I managed to purchase a mince pie. It couldn't be too terrible, could it? Well, let's just say the females of this house are the least picky eaters and ,yet, it was the males who loved the mince. Strangoids! LOL. I think I've passed my dislike for cooked raisins along to my daughters. And apparently, cooked dates are in the same category. That would be the EWW category. I'll be watching for Cherry Pie sales!

Wordless Wednesday

Two Turtle Ducks and a Portrait of a Pear Tree???

Ah...the sounds of the season. Christmas Carols. They've been ringing through our home on the voice of angels, er, impish little kids who keep changing their Christmas lists. So last night youngest dd, Emma, was singing the Twelve days of Christmas and cracking me up. Apparently, her true love will be giving her two turtle ducks and a portrait of a pear tree. I wonder how he'll get the pear tree to sit still long enough?


So, about those Christmas lists? Our ds is pretty good about being very specific and only putting things he's pretty sure about on the list. He may be a bit type A (like his father) but it sure makes getting him gifts pretty easy. The girls, however, are a whole different story. Especially the youngest, Emma. "I want that." is a common phrase from her. It really doesn't even matter what it is or who the product is intended to entertain. In fact, other than food, I've never heard her say that she didn't want something. I pray that it turns into a good thing for her as we try to guide her through these years teaching her about wants and needs and discipline and charity and so on. Parenting is stinkin' hard! But I bet you already knew that, huh? Well, why didn't someone warn me, uh, like 14 years ago?

Unseasonably cool weather in S Florida lately. Not that I'm complaining...

The cold fronts have been coming this way with wonderful regularity. I'm loving these days with the highs in the mid 70's or lower. There will be no complaints from this quarter. I just hope that the weather can stay cool through next weekend. The All-Star Battle at the Beach is this coming weekend and ds plays for the Acreage All-Star Hawks. It's a whole weekend of games. Our team plays on Saturday and then again on Sunday. GO HAWKS!

On to other topics...We had a great Thanksgiving. We chose to head over to Busch Gardens. What a great idea. I'll post pics in another post. Last year we had Thanksgiving at Sea World. I'm lobbying for Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios for next year.

It's been a bit stressful though the last few weeks. Both of my grandmothers were in the hospital two weeks ago. My mom's mom was having stroke symptoms but they tests show that it was not a stroke and they aren't sure what it was, but she's fine now.

My Dad's mom, OTOH, is not doing so well. In June, at her birthday, she scratched her arm and didn't care for it properly. This led to a rash on her arms that was incorrectly treated by the doctor over the last few months, it's proved to be very difficult and nothing has cleared it up. She has put on weight and has not been able to be mobile because she needs to use her arms to get out of a chair. Two weeks ago, walking across her living room, she fell and broke her upper arm. This created even more mobility issues and some other issues have come up.

She is unable to care for herself. In fact, with the meds and some blood loss that the dr. thinks is from the broken bone. I don't know, 4 pints in a month seems like a bit more than normal for a broken bone, but okay... Anyways, she's been out of it mentally and physically she's just not able to do anything. I'm worried but I'm over a thousand miles away. I want to go out to Arkansas to help, but with the All-Star game, the holidays and money issues, it's not looking good.

Oh, and then there's the whole driving in winter thing. You know, I'm a South Florida girl, no snow tires or chains or any of that stuff. I don't do ice patches, lol. If things get worse, I'll head out and just do my best to be very careful. Flying would be great but it's not likely, especially since I'll probably be bringing my girls and my aunt and her two teen boys. For now, it's wait and see. :(